Protracted Regional Conflicts Aimed at More US Arms Sales: Iranian Official

News ID: 1459454 Service: Politics

July, 09, 2017 - 11:10

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An aide to Iran’s parliament speaker slammed the attempts to prolong the armed and diplomatic tensions in the Middle East region as part of the US and Israeli plots to sell more weapons to the regional countries.

The US and Israel play a vicious role in the Middle East developments, Iranian parliament speaker's special adviser on international affairs, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said in a meeting with Syrian Ambassador to Iran Adnan Mahmoud, held in Tehran on Saturday.

The attempts to create lingering crises in the Middle East, such as the continuation of military campaign against Yemen, threatening Syria with a military assault, and perpetuation of tensions in the relations between Saudi Arabia and Qatar are aimed at selling more weapons to the region, Amir Abdollahian added.

The Iranian official further reaffirmed Tehran’s commitment to helping the Syrian government and nation in the fight against terrorism, stressing that Syrians alone should decide their own fate.

For his part, the Syrian envoy praised Iran for its leading role in the war against terrorism in the region, and called for closer political, economic, cultural and parliamentary cooperation between Damascus and Tehran.

While Syria has been gripped by a civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups controlling parts of it, Iran has remained a close ally of the Arab nation and has been supporting its legitimate government in the face of foreign-backed militancy.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.